tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79352395517283331902018-03-05T06:37:02.600-09:00Alaskan ExplorationLife on the Last FrontierKylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10551740987008925562noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935239551728333190.post-10473059782998206752010-03-10T11:22:00.003-09:002010-03-10T11:26:48.425-09:00Skype for Mac sucks.I got a message on my computer today. There's a new version of Skype! It's only been <a href="http://share.skype.com/sites/mac/">6 months since their last developer's blog post</a>.&nbsp;I should know, I check every few days to see if, by some act of God or Management, they're forced to actually post something.<br /><br />It seems even a new version of their product doesn't warrant a post. Nice to know they care.<br /><br />Anyways, what's new with the new version? Why, it's a <a href="http://share.skype.com/sites/mac/2009/07/skype_2_8_gold_for_mac_out_now.html">list of items that were new last July</a>! How useful. They can't even post a changelog for the last <i>two versions</i>&nbsp;of their software. Why should I download the new version, exactly? Oh, yeah. Because I'd asked if they could fix a really annoying 'feature'.<br /><br />On to why the software itself sucks:<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br />The Drawer is a software feature that Apple put into OS X way back at the beginning, but stopped shipping years ago. I don't remember an exact date, but it's been at least since OS X 10.5 that it hasn't been a standard GUI element. That means Skype goes out of their way to include this horrible bit of code that <a href="http://www.mcelhearn.com/2006/07/29/the-mac-os-x-drawer-a-badly-designed-user-interface-element/">everyone agrees sucks</a>. Let me show you what it looks like:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuzzort/4422508861/" title="Screen shot 2010-03-10 at 10.40.43 AM by Kyle Cuzzort, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4422508861_d2fa2b246e_m.jpg" width="240" height="217" alt="Screen shot 2010-03-10 at 10.40.43 AM" /></a><br /><br />Want to see what that window <i>should</i>&nbsp;look like? It's possible!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuzzort/4423274206/" title="Screen shot 2010-03-10 at 10.42.40 AM by Kyle Cuzzort, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2757/4423274206_b3dbaf3fa4_m.jpg" width="202" height="240" alt="Screen shot 2010-03-10 at 10.42.40 AM" /></a><br /><br />All you have to do is press a button <i>every single time you open a new chat window</i>. You open a chat, the drawer opens. You then click the button and the drawer disappears. Your conversation loses focus, you close the window. Then a new message appears, but before you can respond to it the window opens, and then takes the time to open up a new drawer. It's not like the computer itself is slow, the drawer is actually programmed to take time opening for maximum annoyance effect.<br /><br />As an added bonus, the overall Skype app ends up taking up a huge amount of space on screen. How much? Here's an image of it (click for full-size):<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuzzort/4423274698/" title="Screen shot 2010-03-10 at 10.44.03 AM by Kyle Cuzzort, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2794/4423274698_d7a1718ce6_m.jpg" width="240" height="158" alt="Screen shot 2010-03-10 at 10.44.03 AM" /></a><br /><br />Notice that I'm told I'm chatting with 'archerjb' no less than <i>three times</i>&nbsp;in that screenshot.<br /><br />Okay, so, why don't I just send a message to Skype and ask them to add a button to disable the drawer? I have. In fact, I've done it several times. I've seen that several other people have as well. It's one of the most commonly asked features on the Skype forums. It's a simple bit of code to either disable it by default or make a button for it. I've seen other Skype employees even write messages saying they'll 'forward that request to the developers'.<br /><br />Why haven't we seen any progress?<br /><br />I suspect it's because the Skype for Mac programmers seem to love the drawer. They have posts on <a href="http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showforum=15">their forums</a> praising how useful it is. They're the <i>only</i>&nbsp;people saying it's awesome. That tells me they have very little oversight. That's not a good thing.<br /><br />In case you're wondering why I chose to post this rant, it's because blogs have a really nice habit of getting picked up by search engines. Maybe if it gets seen, it might force them to fix their piece of crap. I have no delusions that my individual opinion matters, but bad press is bad press. I like to think that somebody at Skype Googles 'Skype' once a day, and they'll come across this and tell someone to get them in line. I'm not horribly hopeful, though.<br /><br />Oh, yeah, one bit of sad praise: At least this time the main Skype <a href="http://www.skype.com/download/skype/macosx/">download link</a> has the updated version. Last update, they didn't include it. So anyone downloading Skype got an outdated version right off the bat. On top of that, the 'check for updates' feature in the app itself didn't find the updated release. You had to read their biannual blog post to get it. How convenient.<br /><br />The saddest part about all of this? Skype is still the best VoIP client available.Kylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10551740987008925562noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935239551728333190.post-2789250534645156582010-02-04T21:36:00.002-09:002010-02-04T22:43:33.626-09:00We're getting married!Yay! Okay, I felt like I should post up a big, blaring, announcement on here so that nobody could possibly miss it.<br /><br />There. Now you're not in the dark!<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuzzort/4331318349/" title="Us on the glacier! by Kyle Cuzzort, on Flickr"><img alt="Us on the glacier!" height="375" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2725/4331318349_9157571623.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">P.S. No complaining that you can't find the wedding link.</div><br /></div>Kylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10551740987008925562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935239551728333190.post-24856681207704086372009-11-19T20:16:00.004-09:002009-11-20T19:38:58.957-09:00"A child, two guys, can of Quick Start, Bic lighter: How could this not go wrong?"I'm not really a big fan of posting news items to blogs, but I had to share this:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Police say two Anchorage men who were baby-sitting a girlfriend's children set a 5-year-old boy's hair on fire with what they called a "redneck flamethrower."</span><br /><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> They lit an aerosol spray on fire and aimed it at the boy in an attempt to scare him to toughen him up.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> They said it was an accident that the flames reached farther than expected.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> The boy's hair was singed and he suffered burns on the side of his face.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> The Anchorage Daily News reports the injury occurred Friday but the boy wasn't treated until Monday when the injury was noticed at school.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> The men, ages 29 and 32, are facing charges of assault and reckless endangerment. One is the boy's mother's current boyfriend and the other man has another child with the woman.</span><br /></blockquote><br />That's from the <a href="http://www.kinyradio.com/juneaunews/latest_juneau_news.html">KINY News</a> in Juneau. For the full version from the Anchorage Daily News, <a href="http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/story/1018935.html">click here</a>.<br /><br />How much therapy is this poor kid going to need later on?Kylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10551740987008925562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935239551728333190.post-28308580484025520002009-10-28T21:16:00.000-08:002009-10-28T21:16:14.702-08:00Cruise Ship Pollution<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuzzort/4054685358/" title="Cruise Ship Pollution by Kyle Cuzzort, on Flickr"><img alt="Cruise Ship Pollution" height="375" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2490/4054685358_75c881740a.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><a name='more'></a>I just thought I'd stir the pot a little bit here. I originally took the picture for the harbor seals in the foreground. Instead I ended up with a picture of a cruise ship spewing crud into the air.<br /><br />I can't believe all the people who argue that we shouldn't apply emissions standards to ships. Any idiot can see that the crud they spew into the air is NOT HEALTHY.Kylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10551740987008925562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935239551728333190.post-51928616535875664782009-10-28T16:17:00.001-08:002009-10-28T22:33:12.142-08:00It was a dark and stormy night;In 5th grade I went to something called the Young Writer's Conference. Ostensibly it was an event for elementary school students who had an interest in writing to get together with teachers and authors, acting as mentors, and learn different techniques about how to be creative. In reality, I think most of us signed up simply to get Brian Jacques to autograph our Redwall books.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />Of course, it's never that easy. The autograph signing was at the end of the day. The entire rest of that beautiful Saturday was spent indoors at writing sessions. I doubt anyone else has ever written "It was a dark and stormy night" that many times in one day, assuming Snoopy doesn't count (apologies to Bulwer-Lytton).<br /><br /><br />Aside from some autographs I actually did take one really useful thing out of that conference. It was that the hardest part of writing anything is the start. Once you have something on the page, anything, you can usually keep it going. That's what this post is for.<br /><br />I honestly don't know what I want to do with a blog. I don't know that I need a blog. Okay, I know I don't <i>need</i> a blog. But hey, this isn't about needs. It's about doing something just because I can. But I can't do it unless I start.<br /><br />So here it is. A start. A blog. A blog post. Whatever. The page is no longer blank.Kylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10551740987008925562noreply@blogger.com1